tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56493737520179194452023-12-19T20:02:15.028+00:00The Professional DescendantKirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-9964831468142982572013-02-26T19:14:00.000+00:002013-02-26T19:14:15.794+00:00Another WDYTYA Live Blog Post<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’m now back home recovering after a busy weekend at the <a href="http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/" target="_blank">‘Who Do You Think You Are? Live’</a> (WDYTYA) show which bills itself as “the biggest family history event...in the world!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This was my second visit and I wrote about my experience as a ‘newbie’ in a <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/wdytya-live-newbies-perspective.html" target="_blank">post</a> last year. This year I took my own advice and volunteered on a few different stands in order to get free entry for all three days. I did an ‘Ask the Expert’ session on Friday, helped out on the <a href="http://www.apgen.org/" target="_blank">APG</a> stand on Saturday afternoon and on the <a href="http://www.asgra.co.uk/" target="_blank">ASGRA</a> stand for a couple of hours on Sunday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I was a bit nervous about doing a stint in the ‘Ask the Expert’ area (I figure anyone who describes themselves as an “Expert” and then invites questions is asking for trouble!) but this was actually good fun and I would recommend anyone who has been thinking of doing this to give it a try. It was more like sitting down for a friendly chat than being grilled on expert knowledge. Although the areas of expertise I specified in advance were Scotland and palaeography, I got more questions about London research than anything else and they were much more basic than I had anticipated. I think I was of some help to most people I spoke to, although can’t say I sent any brickwalls tumbling down.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Also learning from my previous experience, I made an effort to attend a few more workshops this year and managed to get to five ticketed ones as well as dropping in on one of the unticketed talks from the The National Archives. I did intend to go to one of the DNA workshops, but these always seemed to be part-way through whenever I was in that area and I didn’t get a chance. I browsed most of the stalls and bought a couple of books, but didn’t spend much time looking at the stands of the big commercial vendors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As with last year, undoubtedly the best part of the WDYTYA experience was the opportunity to meet with other genealogists, many of whom I know through Twitter and some of whom I’d not met in person before. As WDYTYA is such an international event, these included genealogists from Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and the USA, as well as all parts of the UK and Ireland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The ‘I tweet’ badges designed by <a href="https://twitter.com/SoGGenealogist" target="_blank">Else Churchill</a> of the <a href="http://www.sog.org.uk/" target="_blank">Society of Genealogists</a> were a big help in spotting one another as well as a bit of a conversation starter when browsing the stands. An original plan for a few friends to meet for lunch on Saturday turned into an official ‘tweet up’ organised by <a href="https://twitter.com/rosemarymorgan" target="_blank">Rosemary Morgan</a> of <a href="http://londonrootsresearch.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">London Roots Research</a>. As this picture uploaded to Rosemary’s twitter account shows, it was quite a success:</span></span></div>
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Great <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23tweetup">#tweetup</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23wdytyalive">#wdytyalive</a>. Thanks guys! <a href="http://t.co/2WNVxGAZi8" title="http://twitter.com/rosemarymorgan/status/305306711101673472/photo/1">twitter.com/rosemarymorgan…</a><br />
— Rosemary Morgan (@rosemarymorgan) <a href="https://twitter.com/rosemarymorgan/status/305306711101673472">February 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Because there is so much going on with workshops and many people involved in some way with the various stands it wasn’t possible for everyone to make it (I had to nip off after 15 mins) and plans are already being made for an evening tweet up at next year’s show.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s a few years since I first started going to genealogy events and obviously I’ve aged a bit in the intervening years, but one of the things that really struck me this year was the number of young, incredibly enthusiastic family historians I met. Anyone who thinks genealogy is just a hobby for the retired would certainly get that illusion shattered by a day at WDYTYA!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whilst I’m still physically exhausted from WDYTYA, I feel invigorated and inspired by all the fantastic people I met: people who research their own families, run businesses, write books, teach, lecture, blog, conduct one-name studies, are involved in family history societies and in quite a few cases still find time to have a “proper” job as well. I have little doubt that, with so many great young people involved, the future of genealogy is very bright!</span></span></div>
Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-70734032045316425152013-01-29T15:05:00.001+00:002013-01-29T16:18:51.939+00:00The Scottish Registers of Sasines<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It’s true to say that prior to the 20th century few people in Scotland owned their own home. For this reason, most modern guides to Scottish family history devote little space to property records. This has perhaps led to the belief that, unless your ancestors were among the aristocracy, property records are not worth searching, but this is really not the case.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In Scotland, the main series of property records are the Registers of Sasines which exist for the whole of Scotland from 1617 (an incomplete Secretary’s Register exists for 1599-1609) and are held by the National Records of Scotland. From 1781 there are printed abridgements which provide a summary of sasines recorded in the General and Particular (county) registers. The extracts below, taken from the first volume of Sasine Abridgements for the County of Edinburgh (Midlothian) give an idea of the type of information you may find:</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(8) Jan. 9. 1781.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ANN BLACKBURN, relict of Edward Keay, Sailor, Leith, for behoof of Cornelius Keay, his son, and Jean Keay, sister of said Edward Keay, Seised, for their respective interests, Nov. 30. 1780, - in a Tenement in LEITH; - in security of £40; -on Bond by Margaret Ainslie, relict of David Dryburgh, Shipmaster, Leith, Nov. 30. 1780. P. R. 255. 130.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(28) Feb. 13. 1781.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">MARGARET FINNIE, relict of James Gilbert, Brewer, North Back of Canongate, and Grizel Gilbert, spouse of George Rae, Fish-hookmaker, Leith Wynd, Seised, in liferent and fee respectively, Dec. 20. 1781, -in part of a Tenement in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BELL’S WYND, Edinburgh; - on Post Nup. Mar. Con. between James McGlashan, Chairmaster, Edinburgh, & Elizabeth Watt, his spouse, to said Elizabeth Watt, in liferent, and William McGlashan, their son, in fee, Dec. 27. 1769; & Disp. & Assig. by said William McGlashan, Oct. 16. 1780. P. R. 255. 268.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(64) Apr. 3. 1781.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BARBARA BEGG, daughter of William Begg, Tailor, Newbigging, as heir to Martin Begg, Cloathier there, her grandfather, Seised, Mar. 26. 1781, - in a Tenement in NEWBIGGING, Musselburgh; - on Cognition by the Magistrates of Musselburgh, Mar. 26. 1781. P. R. 256. 181.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(101) May 15. 1781.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WILLIAM BARCLAY, Baker, London, as heir to William Barclay, Tailor, Canongate, his father, Seised, Apr. 7. 1781, in half of a Tenement in PLEASANCE, & piece of Ground adjoining; - on a Ch. Conf. & Pr. Cl. Con. by the Commissioner of William Wardrop, Merchant, Virginia, Nov. 7. 1780. P. R. 257. 126.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(135) Jun. 13. 1781.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">JOHN HILL, Porter, Edinburgh, and Rachell Waugh, his spouse, Seised, Jun. 13. 1781, - in part of a Tenement in LAURISTON STREET, near Edinburgh; - on Disp. by Alexander Dempster, Wright, Orchyeardfield, near Edinburgh, Nov. 6. 1780. P. R. 258. 77.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(164) Jul. 13. 1781.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">THOMAS LAWSON, Servant to William Noble in Boreland, Seised, Jun. 30. 1781, -in Tenements in PORTSBURGH; - in security of £90; - on Bond by James Somervell, Mason, Whitefield, May 30. 1781. P. R. 259. 40.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I picked out these entries because of the variety of occupations recorded: sailor, brewer, fish-hookmaker, tailor, baker, porter, servant etc. Whilst they may not be exactly typical (in Edinburgh in this period the most common occupation given is merchant), it did not take much browsing through the volume of abridgements to find them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These entries also demonstrate the valuable genealogical details that may be found in sasines (often linking two or more generations) and how frequently women are named.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s worth pointing out that whilst a broad range of people may be found in sasines for Scottish towns and cities, the situation is rather different in rural areas where the vast amount of heritable property was owned by a small number of large landowners. However, if you’ve never explored the Registers of Sasines they are well worth a look - you never know what you may find.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The National Records of Scotland (formerly the National Archives of Scotland) has a guide to the Registers of Sasines at <a href="http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/sasines.asp">www.nas.gov.uk/guides/sasines.asp</a></span></span></span></div>
Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-81505447663683301442013-01-21T20:05:00.001+00:002013-01-21T20:05:42.795+00:00Finding Method in the Madness<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Over the past 19 months I’ve been participating in a <a href="http://progenstudy.org/" target="_blank">ProGen Study Group</a>, based around the book <i><a href="http://www.genealogical.com/products/Professional%20Genealogy/3844.html" target="_blank">Professional Genealogy</a>: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers and Librarians</i> edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2001). The programme consists of reading chapters of the book, completing monthly assignments and participating in group discussions. Additional reading is encouraged, particularly from<i> <a href="https://www.evidenceexplained.com/" target="_blank">Evidence Explained</a>: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace</i> (2nd Edition) by Elizabeth Shown Mills (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2012) and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bcg-Genealogical-Standards-Manual/dp/0916489922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358796535&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual</a> </i>(Washington: Board of Certification for Genealogists, 2000).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One of the main reasons this programme (whose participants are drawn primarily, although not exclusively, from the USA) appealed to me was because there generally seems to be little discussion of methodology in genealogical research in the UK; whether in books, magazines or as part of family history courses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, lately things do seem to be changing. I’ve noticed a few references to the <a href="http://www.bcgcertification.org/resources/standard.html" target="_blank">Genealogical Proof Standard</a> cropping up in UK genealogy circles in recent months and last year saw the publication of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genealogy-Essential-Research-Helen-Osborn/dp/0709091974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358796819&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Genealogy: Essential Research Methods</a></i> by Helen Osborn (London: Robert Hale, 2012).</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Osborn’s book draws upon the American genealogical manuals mentioned above, amongst others, and is written in an accessible, readable style. It covers a broad range of topics including effective searching, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">analysing and working with documents, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">planning and problem-solving, and recording information and citing sources; and highlights the fact that many so-called ‘brick walls’ are of our own making.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I did find the organisation of the subject matter a little confusing, particularly in the earlier chapters. For example, a description of administrative systems in England & Wales is contained in the same chapter as a discussion of primary and secondary evidence. Although this brief section does introduce the concepts of original v. derivative sources and primary v. secondary information, it doesn’t include one of the fundamental ways in which the use of sources differs between historians and genealogists: namely, that a single genealogical source will frequently contain both primary and secondary information.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Genealogy: Essential Research Methods</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> draws largely on English sources but, as stated inside the cover, much is relevant to research in other countries and I’m sure it will become a staple on the reading lists of genealogy courses. The reviews on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/">www.amazon.co.uk</a> are very positive.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Based on a recommendation in <i>Genealogy: Essential Research Methods</i>, which was echoed by several friends, I’ve recently read <i><a href="http://www.thefamilyhistorypartnership.com/publications/publication-details.php?frmPublicationID=41" target="_blank">Nuts and Bolts: Family History Problem Solving through Family Reconstitution Techniques</a></i> (2nd Edition) by Andrew Todd (Bury: Allen & Todd, 2003). This is a highly-readable little booklet and after sitting down to read a chapter or two over coffee, I found myself finishing it in an afternoon. Todd argues convincingly that family reconstruction (aka tracing collateral lines or kinship networks) can not only solve research problems but also recreates the reality of our ancestors’ lives. I found the idea that increased mobility, especially in the 19th century, strengthened rather than weakened kinship networks to be particularly interesting. Again, examples are taken primarily from English research, but many of the techniques can be applied elsewhere. The book covers some of the points that were raised in the interesting discussion that developed in the comments of my recent post, <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/who-belongs-on-family-tree.html" target="_blank">'Who belongs on the Family Tree?</a>'. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Also due to recommendations, I’m currently reading <i><a href="http://www.pitfallsandpossibilities.co.uk/" target="_blank">Pitfalls and Possibilities in Family History Research</a></i> by Pauline M. Litton, MBE (Harrogate: Swansong, 2010). Based on a series of articles that appeared in <i>Family Tree</i> magazine (UK), this is more a discussion of (primarily English) records than of genealogical methodology, but does include some advice on search techniques etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">With so many books being published on a variety of family history topics these days, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s out there. I’d be interested to hear of any other recommendations of books that deal with methodology in genealogy research and that may help to foster a sense of order as we pursue our “favourite insanity”.</span></span></div>
Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-87207456010946096392013-01-14T14:11:00.000+00:002013-01-14T14:13:01.914+00:00A Sailor's request to the Kirk Session<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As readers of this blog may have guessed, the Kirk Session records of the Church of Scotland (and other Scottish churches) are one of my favourite genealogical sources.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But in case you thought that Kirk Session minutes are only of use for locating details of illegitimate births and 'ante-nuptial' fornication, I thought I would share this interesting extract from the Kirk Session minutes for North Berwick, East Lothian that I came across recently:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">North Berwick Kirk Session: Minutes 1814-1816</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">National Records of Scotland ref. CH2/285/7</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Page 54</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <i> North Berwick 6th</i></span></span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Nov[embe]r</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"> 1815</span></i></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>ation the case of Henry Jackson, who having deserted from</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>on board one of the Kings Ships, & entered on board of</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>another under the name of Henry King requested the</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Moderator & two members of the Session to subscribe</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>a Certificate to him for prize money. The Session</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>having deliberated refused to grant such Certificate</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>under the name of King without also mentioning his</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>real name_</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I think it's fair to say that this entry raises more questions than it answers! However it could be very useful for anyone trying to track down a Henry Jackson who mysteriously disappears from the records in the 1810s or a Henry King who seems to have sprung from nowhere.</span></span></div>
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Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-28140305465712512412013-01-06T18:37:00.000+00:002013-01-06T18:40:11.846+00:00Who belongs on the Family Tree?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last few years I’ve been making an effort to sort out my genealogy files, make sure every statement has a proper source citation and to fill in the gaps in my family tree. As with much in my life, this is a project characterised by lengthy periods of inactivity, punctuated by the occasional bout of intense industry. At times the sheer size of the task can seem overwhelming and, needless to say, it’s nowhere near completion. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The recent Christmas break has given me the opportunity to do a little more work on my family research and I’ve been concentrating on the ancestors of my paternal grandfather. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One result of taking (or at least trying to take) a logical, methodical approach to researching and documenting your family history is that it raises questions you may not consider when skipping merrily from branch to branch as the fancy takes you. For me, one of these questions is, “Just who should I be researching?” Or, to put it another way, “Who belongs on the family tree?” </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdi0qoISmtaSBytLYS9To1HLgZeoYazb3r6-eodgOdcq8el2Un-WwmeUs8TXeV75huHLqBT8ksrX4eo9R9IUDAZ9CNTGBtWUfvlhgEeGkRNsZOxfZveg2EPRi0ayBapS7XAARVnjicg/s1600/Sykes+Family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdi0qoISmtaSBytLYS9To1HLgZeoYazb3r6-eodgOdcq8el2Un-WwmeUs8TXeV75huHLqBT8ksrX4eo9R9IUDAZ9CNTGBtWUfvlhgEeGkRNsZOxfZveg2EPRi0ayBapS7XAARVnjicg/s320/Sykes+Family.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A gathering of the Sykes family. Only two people in this photograph are actually my ancestors. Do I need to research the rest?</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This might seem a simple enough question, but one thing I’ve realised from chatting with other genealogists is that our concept of family can differ greatly. Perhaps because I began my research with very little information and having had few family stories passed down to me, my definition of who belongs on my family tree has generally been quite narrow: direct ancestors and their children only. Until I’ve tied down the people I’m actually descended from (some of whom are pretty elusive), I don’t feel I should be spending time on tracing aunties, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, step-children etc. etc. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Conversely, some family historians seem to have a much broader view of what constitutes ‘their family’. Perhaps having grown up surrounded by a big family or hearing stories about many of their relatives, they are keen to trace the lives of great-aunts and -uncles, cousins and even more distant relations. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, I realise that it may be helpful to research collateral lines in order to identify your ancestors and to trace earlier generations. I have a few ‘problem’ ancestors for whom tracing the births, marriages and deaths of all children has been the only way to figure out who they were. This approach can even be extended to researching your ancestors “<a href="http://www.geneamusings.com/2010/11/target-fan-club-to-tackle-elusive.html" target="_blank">FANs</a>” - that is, their Friends, Associates and Neighbours (e.g. identifying the witnesses to your ancestors’ marriage, who may turn out to be relatives). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But problem ancestors aside, where do you draw the line? The abundance of information, especially digitised records, now available online makes this an increasingly pressing question. Once upon a time, finding a marriage record for my English ancestors meant visiting a large reference library and searching through the GRO fiche quarter by quarter, comparing volume and page numbers, then sending off for the certificate and hoping I’d identified the right one. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to do the same thing for each of their brothers and sisters. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently, thanks largely to the fact that both the Church of England parish registers and baptist chapel registers for where my ancestors lived are now available on <a href="http://www.ancestry.co.uk/">www.ancestry.co.uk</a>, I was able to locate marriage and death information for all seven children born to one of my ancestral couples in a few hours spent at my computer. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If time and money were no object, I think most family history enthusiasts would want to trace not only their own ancestors but also the wider families of which they were a part. However, few of us have that luxury and, with limited resources, there is the argument that the more people you have in your genealogy files, the less time you have to research each one, so that your family history risks becoming little more than a collection of names and dates. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the start of another year, many genealogy bloggers have been posting their genealogy goals for 2013. Organising the information already collected and focussing efforts on a particular family line or problem are common aims. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Deciding who to research is the first step in any genealogy plan, so I’m interested to hear from other researchers, how do you decide who belongs on your family tree?</span></div>
Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-22223452460356274372012-10-27T18:57:00.000+01:002012-10-27T18:57:03.820+01:00Scottish Local History Forum Conference<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday I attended the <a href="http://www.slhf.org/" target="_blank">Scottish Local History Forum</a> Conference at the AK Bell Library in Perth. The theme of the conference was “For Reliefe of the Pure and Impotent”: Welfare in Scotland before the Welfare State and it comprised nine talks on a broad range of topics connected to the poor in Scotland. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The day began with Robin Urquhart from the National Records of Scotland giving an overview of poor relief in the period 1560-1894. This provided a useful background to the rest of the talks. Next, the Rev. Dr. Johnston McKay discussed Thomas Chalmers’s Glasgow experiment and the differing opinions as to whether or not it was a success. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dr. Irene O’Brien “painted the local picture in the west of Scotland” drawing upon the collection of records held at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Having heard Dr. O’Brien speak before, some of the material was familiar to me, but the statistics she provided were particularly interesting - for example, that in the 1890s only 20% of those receiving poor relief were living in the poorhouse, the majority receiving outdoor relief. I also hadn’t appreciated the compulsion on single mothers (widows, the deserted and mothers of illegitimate children) to enter the poorhouse, primarily to prevent them having more children! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Iain Flett from Dundee City Archives described the poorhouses that existed in Dundee from the 1500s to the 1900s. Unfortunately, the fate of most of Dundee’s poor registers reflects that of Edinburgh’s, having been deliberately destroyed because people wanted to look at them, although records do survive for the East Poorhouse. This was followed by Gordon Douglas speaking (and singing!) about the <a href="http://www.sonsofthemars.com/" target="_blank">Mars Training Ship</a>. Although I’d heard of the Mars, I was unaware that it took boys from all over Scotland or that around half of them came from Glasgow (especially Catholic boys who were not accepted by many institutions). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After lunch, Dr. Malcolm Bangor-Jones discussed growing old in 19th century Sutherland, providing an interesting contrast to the earlier talks on the urban poor. He mentioned the role played by landlords and the information to be found in estate records, particularly the Sutherland Papers. Patricia Whatley from the University of Dundee described medical services (or rather the lack of them) in the Highlands 1845-1913, concluding with the Dewar Report and the creation of the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, a forerunner of the NHS. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The final talks were by Dr. Eric Graham on The Incorporation of the Masters and Assistants of Trinity House and their role in caring for the seafaring community, and Elizabeth Henderson on Friendly Societies in West Lothian. Both talks highlighted that relief of the poor was not only the concern of the church or the parochial boards, and that self-help through membership of a trade incorporation or friendly society was also important. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I definitely learnt a lot and had a great day. My main criticism would be that as each speaker only had a 25-30 minute slot they had to gallop through their material at quite a pace, which in every case could easily have filled a hour or more. However, this did mean that a broad range of topics were covered, if not in depth, and this really emphasized the wide variety of records available for studying the Scottish poor. Although there were plenty of genealogists in the audience, I didn’t get the impression that most of the speakers had ‘dumbed-down’ for a family/local history audience, which made a pleasant change. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of the main points I took away from the day were: that the change from the Old Poor Law to the New Poor Law was more a change in administration than a fundamental change in policy; that despite the threat of the poorhouse being used as a test of destitution, the most common experience of the poor in Scotland was one of outdoor relief; and that poor relief was not intended to be a sole means of support but rather topped up the help received from other sources. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was very interested to see several examples of printed poor rolls, similar to those I previously blogged about <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/lists-of-edinburgh-poor.html" target="_blank">here</a> that exist for Edinburgh. Apparently these were produced so that ratepayers could see who was getting their money and raise objections if they didn’t consider the recipients to be deserving! I would be interested to know how many of these printed lists of names survive for other areas of Scotland, as presumably producing them was a fairly common practice. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Patricia Whatley kindly mentioned my <a href="http://www.myainfolk.com/Resources_files/Records_of_the_Scottish_Poor.pdf" target="_blank">Records of the Scottish Poor</a> list during her talk, and as a result of attending the conference I’ve added a few more details. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next conference from the Scottish Local History Forum will be the Spring Conference and Local History Mini Fair to take place in Kinghorn, Fife on 26 April 2013. The theme is ‘Salt, Sun & Shivering: Scots at the Seaside 1750-2000’. Although this may not be of quite as much interest to genealogists, I’m sure it will be another enjoyable day. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve previously been disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of conferences for genealogists in the UK, beyond the very basic talks given at most family history fairs. Although the SLHF Conference was not aimed specifically at genealogists (or perhaps because of that), it provided a great deal of information about an important genealogical source. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the <a href="http://www.historyfest.co.uk/" target="_blank">Previously...</a> Scotland’s History Festival in Edinburgh next month, the <a href="http://www.safhs.org.uk/conference.asp" target="_blank">Scottish Association of Family History Societies</a> conference to be held in Galashiels in May 2013, planned celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Scottish Genealogy Society and the Halsted Trust Conference <a href="http://www.exodus2013.co.uk/" target="_blank">‘Exodus: Movement of the People</a>’ in September 2013, I look forward to attending a lot more conferences in the near future!</span></div>
Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-54975599984216050642012-08-03T14:58:00.000+01:002012-08-04T08:55:12.720+01:00The Scottish Genealogy Network<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are many great things about being a professional genealogist: getting to do something you love every day, helping to solve family mysteries and to give others a greater understanding of their history, constantly learning new things and gaining a better understanding of your country’s past, to name but a few.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, most of us work alone, rarely meet our clients and spend rather more time amongst the dead than the living. Friends and family may not necessarily share our passion or appreciate hearing about the really fascinating record we found from 1792. Genealogy can, therefore, be a rather lonely occupation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For me, social networking has been a great help in overcoming this feeling of isolation and, through <a href="https://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> in particular, I have connected to a great bunch of professionals in the UK and worldwide who are always read to give support and advice and share in an exciting genealogical discovery.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But there’s only so much you can say in 140 characters and nothing beats sitting down face-to-face for a good old chinwag. As I <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/wdytya-live-newbies-perspective.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> earlier this year, for me, the best part of attending ‘Who Do You Think You Are Live’ in London was the opportunity to meet with other professional genealogists, many of whom I’d never met in person before.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In fact, a few of us professionals based in Scotland found meeting up together at WDYTYALive to be so useful (and such good fun!) that we decided to try and make it a regular thing, and so the idea for the Scottish Genealogy Network was born.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The basic idea of the Scottish Genealogy Network is that it should be an informal and inclusive group and meet regularly. As such, it does not replicate nor conflict with any other professional genealogical organisation, of which several attendees (myself included) are members.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Anyone who is involved in genealogy in some way professionally - for example, as a researcher, archivist, librarian, tutor, lecturer, writer, vendor etc. - is very welcome to attend. Meetings will take place on the last Saturday of each month at a different venue throughout Scotland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The main meetings take place in a pub (ideally one with interesting historical connections!) giving those who attend a chance to have a few pints, get to know each other a little better, swap the latest news and gossip from the world of genealogy and perhaps even make some useful business contacts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As getting to some meetings may involve a fair amount of travelling, it was felt to make the most of the different venues we should include something a little educational. Therefore, where possible, there will also be a short visit to a library, archive, museum etc. This will be a chance to familiarise ourselves with record repositories that may be new to us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The next meeting will be held in Perth on Saturday, August 25th 2012. An archivist at <a href="http://www.pkc.gov.uk/Education+and+learning/Libraries+archives+and+learning+centres/Archives/Perth+and+Kinross+Council+Archive.htm" target="_blank">Perth and Kinross Archives</a> had kindly agreed to show the group around the archive (which is normally not open on Saturdays). We will meet at the main entrance to the <a href="http://www.pkc.gov.uk/Education+and+learning/Libraries+archives+and+learning+centres/Libraries+-+general+information/Local+libraries/A+K+Bell+Library+Perth/AK+Bell+Library.htm" target="_blank">A.K. Bell Library</a>, Perth just before 1pm for a tour of the archive, followed by a quick look around the local studies section of the library. Around 1.45-2pm the group will move on to <a href="http://www.strathmorehotels.com/Salutation+Hotel/Contact/" target="_blank">The Salutation Hotel</a> for a drink and a chat.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyone is very welcome to come along to either or both parts of the day. If you would like to be included on an email mailing list for future events, please email me at <a href="mailto:enquiries@myainfolk.com"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #2b00ae; text-decoration: underline;">enquiries@myainfolk.com</span></a> or Chris Paton at </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #333233;">christopherpaton @ tiscali.co.uk You can also read a little more about the Scottish Genealogy Network on Chris’s <a href="http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-scottish-genealogy-network.html" target="_blank">blog</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #333233;">I look forward to meeting some of you at future events!</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #333233;">Kirsty</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Kirsty F. Wilkinson</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-28295620570410608782012-07-15T13:37:00.000+01:002012-07-15T13:43:10.272+01:00Records of the Scottish Poor<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Back in 2004, I remember reading the article <i>Scottish Poor Law Records: An Invaluable Aid to the Genealogist</i> by David W. Webster in the 8th edition of <i>The Family and Local History Handbook</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The article discusses the value of Scottish Poor Relief records and the extent of surviving records, mentioning records for Glasgow, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire and Paisley. Webster wrote that, “elsewhere little appears to be widely known about extant poor relief records”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Since that article was published, a lot has changed in the world of Scottish genealogy. One of these changes has been that the holdings of local archives are now much easier to identify as many archives have added descriptions of their collections to the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) <a href="http://www.scan.org.uk/" target="_blank">catalogue</a>, have their own online catalogues or have created finding aids and guides to their records (some designed specifically for family historians).</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This means that is now fairly easy to locate surviving poor relief records from all over Scotland. However (as far as I know!), no attempt has been made to bring together a list of the records held by different archives, so that it is necessary to consult a range of different catalogues and finding aids to determine what exists for any particular area.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">And so I decided to create a list of ‘Records of the Scottish Poor’ covering the whole of Scotland. This list is available as a PDF file on my website at <a href="http://www.myainfolk.com/Resources.html" target="_blank">www.myainfolk.com/Resources.html</a>. Like my previous list ‘Scottish Censuses, Population Listings & Communion Rolls (mainly pre-1841)’ (also available on my website), this grew out of a desire to have something I could quickly refer to when carrying out research for clients. Also like my previous list, whilst I began with a clear idea of the types of records I would and wouldn’t include, this quickly expanded as I came across a whole host of records that sounded interesting, might be useful and should probably be included.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The current list is very much a work in progress and I hope to update it periodically. Broadly speaking, I have included all registers of poor and volumes of poor relief applications that I could identify, and anything that seems to be a list of those in receipt of poor relief. On the whole I haven’t included minute books, except where these are noted as containing lists of names or have been indexed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have relied heavily on online catalogues and a few reference books, and in some cases these only give very general details. For example, for the counties of Inverness, Orkney, Ross & Cromarty, Shetland and Sutherland, I found that poor relief records survive for certain parishes for specific date ranges and that among these records are general registers of the poor, applications for relief and children’s registers, but have not established exactly what survives for each individual parish. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have included some records of poorhouses, hospitals and asylums, industrial schools, children’s homes and charitable organisations (mainly admissions registers and lists of names), although this is by no means comprehensive. As a number of poorhouses later became hospitals, their records may be found in NHS archives. In addition, many hospitals and asylums distinguished between regular and pauper patients, so that there is a certain amount of overlap between medical records and records of the poor.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As with most records, survival of records of poor relief is pretty patchy, with some counties having vast collections and others practically nothing at all. As well as the well-known <a href="http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/the-mitchell-library/archives/collections/poor-law-archives/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Glasgow poor law archives</a>, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Banffshire, Dumfriesshire, Kincardineshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Moray and Wigtownshire all have pretty good collections.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Conversely, very little survives for Fife, and I have been able to identify few records for the counties of Kinross or Nairn. Whilst most Edinburgh poor relief records were destroyed, there are some records for the 1830s-1840s, as well as lists of poor for 1840-1884 which I blogged about previously <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/lists-of-edinburgh-poor.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Taken as a whole, a remarkable number of records of the Scottish poor do survive - my list is so far up to 40 pages! I was particularly interested to discover how much 20th century material there is, with the poor relief registers of some areas continuing up to the 1940s or even later. Whilst this might seem somewhat academic as most records are subject to 75-year or 100-year closure periods, it does mean that some interesting discoveries await the family historians of the future.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In the above-mentioned article on Scottish Poor Law Records, David W. Webster wrote, “the potential value of the Scottish Poor Law records to genealogists is such that it is surely worthwhile considering a project covering all of Scotland to locate and computer index such records”. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whilst it is not yet clear what form it will take, the fact that the records for Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire and Moray are currently being digitised in a project involving the National Records of Scotland, the Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society and FamilySearch, suggests that such a project may finally be becoming a reality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In the meantime, I hope that my list will enable other researchers to discover what records exist for the areas where their ancestors lived and where these records may be found. If anyone has any additions or amendments to the information contained in the list I would be very grateful if you would let me know. My contact details are listed below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Kirsty F. Wilkinson</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My Ain Folk</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="mailto:enquiries@myainfolk.com">enquiries@myainfolk.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.myainfolk.com/" target="_blank">www.myainfolk.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MyAinFolk" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/MyAinFolk</a></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-60170441476065456862012-06-24T16:15:00.000+01:002012-06-24T16:15:01.555+01:00Edinburgh Bridewell Records: A Rich Source for Tracing Women<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Some recent research has involved me searching the records of the Edinburgh Bridewell, a jail that once stood on Calton Hill in Central Edinburgh.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The information typically given in the records for each prisoner includes: date of commitment, name, age, crime, sentence and details of previous commitment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What particularly struck me when searching these records was the number of women included and, at least for the period I was looking at, it appears that over half of the prisoners in the Bridewell were female.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The large number of women included in these records, together with the fact that, as in many Scottish records, women are recorded under both married and maiden surnames (although in some cases aliases were used), means that they are a surprisingly rich source for tracing female ancestors. And the fact that the date of a person’s previous commitment is given, means that once you have located one entry, it is quite straightforward to trace previous offences.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The majority of those committed to the Bridewell were guilty of petty crimes, including theft, drunkenness, vagrancy, and begging. The following is a selection of entries from the period 1814-1815:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1814 Augt. 15<br />Margt. McDonald or Simpson, 21, Breaking the Windows in Bridewell - 10 Days confinement & thereafter till she pay 5/- damages but not to exceed 60 Days<br /><br /> 1814 Sept 13<br />Janet Thomson alias Helen Black, 44, Drunk & giving false & fictitious names - 30 days confinement<br /><br /> 1814 Sept 30<br />Elizth. Fraser alias Johnston alias Sally Falconer[?], 28, Bringing in spirits to prisoners in P[olice] Office going to Bridewell - 30 Days Confinement<br /><br /> 1815 Jany 31<br />Ann Stevens or Stevenson, 25, Rioting & fighting<br /><br /> 1815 Augt 3<br />Janet Begg, 27, Pawning wearing apparel entrusted to her to mangle - 59 days on B[read] & W[ater]<br /><br /> 1815 Augt 10<br />Betty Dewar or Campbell, 21, Vagrant, drunk & insisting on the Watchmen to conduct her home - 59 days b[read] & w[ater]<br /><br /> 1815 Aug 4<br />Christian Bryce, 37, Drunk in a Stair - 59 days B[read] & W[ater] <br /></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Drunkenness was recorded as a crime more frequently for women than for men, suggesting that female drunkenness was particularly frowned upon.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Many Scottish convicts sent to Australia had committed previous crimes, so the records of the Edinburgh Bridewell and other similar institutions are also a valuable source for those tracing convict ancestors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The records of the Edinburgh Bridewell are held at the National Records of Scotland (formerly National Archives of Scotland) in reference HH21/6/1-15 and cover the period 1798-1840. Details of the surviving records of other prisons in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland are given at <a href="http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/crime.asp#criminals">http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/crime.asp#criminals</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-16602839954937070092012-06-06T16:06:00.001+01:002012-06-06T16:06:50.642+01:00Is There Too Much About The War In Family History TV?<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Last night the final episode of <a href="http://www.channel5.com/shows/war-hero-in-my-family" target="_blank">War Hero in My Family</a> was broadcast on Channel 5 (UK). The series followed twelve celebrities as they uncovered the part their relatives played in the Second World War.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The TV series <a href="http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/find-my-past-tv/about.html" target="_blank">Find My Past</a>, which was broadcast towards the end of last year, took a different approach by connecting ordinary people to famous events in which their ancestors or relatives had been involved. Of the ten episodes, three were concerned with events during the Second World War and one with the First World War.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whilst it’s great to see more family history programmes being made, as someone who doesn’t have a particular interest in military history, I found the war related episodes of ‘Find My Past’ to be the least interesting and wasn’t attracted to the idea of ‘War Hero in My Family’. However, the programme received an overwhelmingly positive response on social media and so I thought I should give it a try.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So far I’ve watched two episodes (the whole series is available through <a href="http://www.channel5.com/demand5" target="_blank">Demand 5</a> but only to those in the UK) but these failed to capture my interest and I can’t help wondering, am I the only one who finds all these war stories a bit samey? Even a bit dull?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I think much of my lack of interest can be traced back to school history lessons. The prevailing belief at the time seemed to be that 20th century history is more relevant to young people than earlier periods, with the result that most of my contemporaries left school bored to tears with studying the Treaty of Versailles and writing essays on the causes of the First World War and with practically no knowledge of anything that happened prior to the 1900s.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of course I can see why military history, and World War II in particular, appeals to programme makers: dramatic stories featuring life or death situations which can be illustrated with photographs, film footage and often interviews with survivors who witnessed the events firsthand. Such sources simply don’t exist for earlier periods and ‘Ag Lab in My Family’ or ‘Domestic Servant in My Family’ would hardly have the same appeal!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Funnily enough, I did enjoy the episodes in more recent series of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t575" target="_blank">Who Do You Think You Are</a> (UK) which focussed on only one or two ancestors (rather than tracing a whole family line) often in the 20th century and sometimes involving the two World Wars (not unlike ‘War Hero in My Family’). Whilst some criticised these for a lack of ‘proper genealogy’, I felt that these illustrated what 'Who Do You Think You Are' (WDYTYA) does well: namely, demonstrating the breadth and range of family history. WDYTYA has shown that tracing family history is not restricted to those with White European origins and that it can involve learning about recent relatives as much as about those who lived hundreds of years ago. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whilst some series of WDYTYA have been more varied than others, the episodes featuring wartime ancestors have tended to contrast with previous and subsequent episodes in the same series in terms of geography and time period. Conversely, ‘Find My Past’ made the decision to broadcast the World War II stories as episodes 1, 3 and 4. I’m sure this ‘turned off’ some viewers to the series who might have enjoyed later episodes such as ‘Suffragettes’ or ‘Royal Scandal’.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Genealogy has long since lost its preoccupation with male lines of descent but, inevitably when the focus is on military history, it is the stories of men which predominate. Whilst women do feature, for example the work of a female plotter with the WAAF was explored in the ‘Battle of Britain’ episode of ‘Find My Past’, theirs are at best supporting roles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’m certainly not saying, “Don’t mention the war”. There are some fantastic tales to be told concerning our ancestors in the First and Second World Wars and it is particularly important to capture stories from World War II whilst some of those involved are still with us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My concern is that the current crop of family history programming, sponsored by the major commercial companies <a href="http://www.ancestry.co.uk/" target="_blank">Ancestry.co.uk</a> and <a href="https://www.findmypast.co.uk/" target="_blank">FindMyPast.co.uk</a> and to some extent the public face of genealogy, may be putting people off learning more about their family history. Just as my schoolfriends and I grew tired of learning ad infinitum about the world wars and in some cases were put off studying history all together, those with little interest in military history, or whose ancestors did not play a major part in the wars, may conclude that family history is not for them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Family history is such a broad and varied field of study and there is little human activity that does not fall within its bounds. It would be nice to see this reflected in family history programming. To misquote John Lennon, “All I am saying is give peace a chance”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Oh, and please, can we have a little bit more about women?!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-76303025090491234002012-02-29T20:16:00.002+00:002012-02-29T20:16:49.197+00:00WDYTYA Live: A Newbie’s Perspective<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m now back home after having spent the weekend in London at<a href="http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/" target="_blank"> ‘Who Do You Think You Are? Live’</a>. I had a fantastic time, met a lot of great genealogy people and very nearly lost my voice (it didn’t help that I arrived with a bad cold)! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was my first time at WDYTYA Live and my first visit to a major family history fair for several years. Having heard about the great time everyone had last year, I decided it was finally time I made the trip and I decided to make a weekend of it, arriving Friday lunchtime and leaving on Sunday afternoon.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly for a show that describes itself as ‘the biggest family history event in the world’, WDYTYA Live was definitely the biggest and the best genealogy fair or conference that I’ve attended. With a well-known TV brand name behind it, the show attracts family historians from all over the UK as well as from Europe and the US. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m very glad that I went, but I did feel that WDYTYA Live suffered from the same problem that has put me off from attending family history fairs for a few years - namely, a lack of substance. I did expect the event to be a bit bigger and if you’re the sort of person who already subscribes to one or two of the major commercial websites and keeps up with what’s happening in the family history world by reading magazines or blogs, it would be very easy to walk around the entire event in an hour or two and come away feeling that you hadn’t really learnt much that you didn’t already know. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although I did buy a couple of books (some secondhand), I didn’t find a lot to tempt to me to open my wallet and as these days it’s so easy to shop around online for a cheap deal, often with free postage, I didn’t particularly feel the urge to splurge on heavy books which I’d then have to cart home with me. It’s a shame that there weren’t more family history societies attending (especially some Scottish ones) as it would have been a good opportunity for them to sell their own, probably lesser known, publications, although I can understand that the expense of a stand and the need for volunteers to serve on it makes things difficult for many of the smaller societies. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The best part for me was the opportunity to meet up with a large number of other professional genealogists as well as genealogy bloggers, tweeters and writers, many of whom I know through social media but hadn’t met in person before. I had plenty of good chats over coffees, dinners and drinks and there are many people I wish I’d had more opportunity to chat with. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, with one entire event’s experience under my belt, I thought I’d draw up a short list of ‘dos’ for WDYTYA Live that I hope to put into practice next year: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Do Volunteer</b> - There seemed to be plenty of complimentary tickets going round for those who helped on stands or served as experts in the ‘Ask the Experts’ area. In most cases you only needed to help out for an hour or two and could then have the rest of the day to enjoy the show. Helping out is also a good way to feel involved and to get chatting with a lot of other people. (Note: You still need to fund your own travel and accommodation though). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Do Plan in Advance</b> - I attended a couple of workshops but really wished I could have been to a few more. The popular ones sell out early so it’s no good waiting until you fancy a sit down and then expecting to get into a talk, you need to get tickets as soon as you arrive. It’s also probably a good idea to work out in advance which exhibitors you particularly want to visit to avoid aimless wandering. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Do Make Yourself Known</b> - There were a few people that I’ve discovered were at WDYTYA Live that I didn’t get to meet. The tweeter/blogger rosettes organised by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/users/SOGgenealogist" target="_blank">Else Churchill</a> of the <a href="http://www.sog.org.uk/index.shtml" target="_blank">Society of Genealogists</a> were a good idea as they stood out from the name badges worn by many of the exhibitors. Next time perhaps they could have something other than ‘Follow Me’ written on them though. After the third gentleman of a certain age came up to me and asked, “Where to?” the joke began to wear a little thin! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Do Arrange To Meet</b> - Even with the rosettes it was very easy to miss people in the large exhibition hall. Having a few mobile numbers and making some arrangements in advance definitely helped when it came to meeting up with people, especially those who were only there for a short time. I hear rumours of a possible ‘tweet up’ area at next year’s show which would be very useful. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Do Have A Good Time! </b>- </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hope to see you all there next year!</span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-37188071534252930102012-01-21T17:16:00.002+00:002012-01-21T17:23:30.232+00:00Naming Baby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When researching Scottish families it’s common to come across the same forenames repeated through the generations. Whilst this can sometimes lead to confusion (I’ve recently researched a family in which seven generations of men had the same name!) it can also be very useful for confirming that you have the right family, especially when a traditional naming pattern was used. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Kinkell Baptismal Font (now in St John's Episcopalian Church, Aberdeen)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Source:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/2856803495/">www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/2856803495/</a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s rare to find the relative after whom a child was named specifically stated, so I was interested to come across these entries in the register of Comrie Associate Congregation, concerning children of the minister, Samuel Gilfillan: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">National Records of Scotland ref. CH3/608/1 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">13th May 1809<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Same day in the afternoon my own Son<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was baptized by Mr Wallace his name is<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel after myself Samuel Gilfillan died the<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">15 Febry 1810 - aged 7 months<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and 15 days - of a croup<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comrie 8 May 1816<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My own daughter was baptized to day<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by Mr Scott, Crieff - Her name is Martha<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rankine, after my Mother and the Surname<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of my Mother in law, Mrs Barlas - Martha Rankine<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Died suddenly on the 30th Decr. 1816.- </span></i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If an unexpected name (particularly one including a surname) crops up in your family it can sometimes be because the child was named after the minister who baptised them. The Comrie Associate Congregation register also provides evidence of this: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br /> </span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comrie 9th Feby 1817<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baptized a Son to day to Peter Millar<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">one of my Elders, his name is Samuel - after my<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">self - Deus benedicat<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Glentarken 2d Decr 1817<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Baptized a Son to Daniel Carmichael named<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel - after myself - Deus benedicat - Samuel<br /> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Carmichael died soon after he was baptized </span></i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Reverend Samuel Gilfillan died in 1826 but his name seems to have lived on among Comrie families. A google search for his name brings up an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography for <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mclaren-samuel-gilfillan-7410" target="_blank">Samuel Gilfillan McLaren</a>, born in Comrie in 1840, and information on the Reverend Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael, born in Comrie in 1871. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to his entry in <a href="http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I24557&tree=Fasti" target="_blank">Fasti</a>, the Reverend Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael was the son of another Samuel Gilfillan Carmichael and his wife Janet Miller, so he may well have been connected to the Millar and Carmichael families mentioned above. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven’t found a child named after a minister in my own family, but I have come across another reason for a child being given a particular name which is sometimes overlooked - that of being named after a relative through marriage (rather than a blood relative). One of my great-aunts was named after her step-grandmother (two older sisters being named after the actual grandmothers). I’ve also researched a family in which two brothers-in-law named a son after each other.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The reason that a child was given a particular name may not be immediately obvious but it can be worth investigating as it may provide evidence of a network of family connections, reveal the parents’ religious or political beliefs, or the allegiances felt to an employer or landowner.</span></div>
</div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-25857204647947692442011-12-03T17:51:00.001+00:002011-12-03T18:18:19.101+00:00The British Newspaper Archive: A Great New Genealogy Resource<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This week the genealogy world has been all atwitter with news of the official launch of the <a href="http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">The British Newspaper Archive</a>. This is a joint venture between <a href="http://www.bl.uk/" target="_blank">The British Library</a> and bright<b>solid</b> (the company behind <a href="http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/" target="_blank">ScotlandsPeople</a> and <a href="http://www.findmypast.co.uk/" target="_blank">FindMyPast</a>) to digitise and make available online up to 40 million newspaper pages from the collection of the British Library.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">At the time of writing there were over 3.1 million pages on the website but this is added to daily. These include titles from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Available date ranges vary considerably but there are some titles from the early 1700s and others that go up to the 1940s. Some of the newspapers have been previously available through the ‘British Newspapers 1600-1900’ database (which is free to access through many libraries in the UK and elsewhere) but others are online for the first time.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An introduction to The British Newspaper Archive from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/BNArchive">BNArchive</a> containing interviews with Ed King, Head of the British Library's Newspaper Collection, and Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive of brightsolid.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The archive is free to search but to view results it is necessary to purchase a subscription. You can search by keywords or exact phrase and can filter your results by place of publication, publication title, date and article type. You get quite a lot of information with a free search: title and date of the newspaper, article title & type, page number and a snippet of the text containing your search words (generated through OCR). Although the OCR is far from perfect, in many cases this gives enough information to determine whether an article to likely to be relevant to your search.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A rather handy feature is that it is possible for users to correct the OCR generated article text, making it easier for others to find the same article. I’ve added corrections to a few articles I’ve looked at, but it is a bit laborious. You can also add tags to articles and bookmark them in different folders (for example, you could create separate folders for each branch of your family) and the site keeps a list of viewed articles under ‘My Research’ so you can easily go back and look at something again without using up credits.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’ve had a lot of fun over the past few days searching for articles mentioning my ancestors and a lot of success. I’m pretty lucky in that there are two titles covering the area where my Scottish mining ancestors lived and, as they have been digitised in colour (rather than in B&W from microfilm), the OCR is relatively accurate. I am also lucky (or should that be unlucky?) in that my ancestors seem to have had rather a lot of brushes with the law!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is a fairly typical example:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Falkirk Herald and Linlithgow Journal</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Wednesday, October 17, 1894.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Page 4, Column 6</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>BREACHES OF THE PEACE. -</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Susan Gilmour or Miller, Isabella Wilson or Broadley, Elizabeth Gilmour or Keenan, Agnes Donaldson or Gray, Sarah Miller or Gray, and William Gray, all residing at Southfield, Slamannan, were accused of having created a disturbance there on the 12th inst. They, with the exception of William Gray, who pleaded not guilty, admitted the charge. The Fiscal said he was prepared to accept the plea of the man Gray, as the ladies seemed to have been the aggressors in the affair. (Laughter.)</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I haven’t yet worked out the relationships between all of these people, although the several shared surnames suggest this may have been a disagreement between extended family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One of the criticisms I’ve seen of The British Newspaper Archive is the amount of duplication between it and other existing databases. I’ve actually found this an advantage as the search options are much more user friendly and the fact you get a preview in your search results means it’s easier to spot relevant articles. I’ve also found that performing identical searches returns more results with The British Newspaper Archive than with British Newspapers 1600-1900, and I’ve found some new information on my Yorkshire ancestors, even though I’ve searched the same newspapers previously.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A bigger problem is that using the download feature results, in my experience, in an illegible image in the majority of cases. The only way to save a readable image that I’ve found is to go into ‘Full Screen View’, zoom in as much as possible (whilst keeping the entire article on screen) and then use your computer’s ‘print screen’ facility. You can then crop the resulting image to show just the relevant article. This works fine with a short article, but not with one in a long column or one that goes over several columns in a large broadsheet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another minor irritation is that when viewing an article your search terms aren’t highlighted, as in other newspaper databases. This means you may have to read through several articles to find the one you want. A way round this is to open the ‘Show Article Text’ box and then use your browser’s ‘Find’ command to locate your search term. When you click on a line of text in ‘Article Text’ the same line is highlighted on the image.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A greater criticism relates to the price of subscriptions. There are three options: a 12 Month Subscription costs £79.95 GBP and is described as Unlimited (but actually restricts you to 1000 pages a month); a 30 Day Package costs £29.95 GBP for 3000 credits; and a 2 Day Package costs £6.95 GBP for 500 credits. Somewhat confusingly, the amount of credits needed to view one page varies depending on which package you have, the date of the article and whether it’s in colour or B&W.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’ve taken out a 2 Day Package. So far I’ve found 21 articles relating to my family (a few I looked at weren’t relevant) and I’ve still got over 200 credits left. I actually think that’s pretty good value when you consider that £6.95 is less than the cost of one BMD certificate and less than the cost of 30 credits on ScotlandsPeople. In many cases it’s information I couldn’t have easily found elsewhere and although I could have looked at some of the newspapers at the <a href="http://www.nls.uk/" target="_blank">National Library of Scotland</a>, I would have had to visit in person, wait 30 mins for the microfilm to be delivered, scroll through a possibly poor quality microfilm and then pay for every print I wanted (providing, of course, one of the few microfilm printers was available and working).</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, I can’t see many family historians being willing to pay nearly £80 to subscribe to a website that only offers newspapers and the fact that the credit packages only last 2 or 30 days is definitely not ideal. I’m not sure I will use all my credits in 2 days and it will be annoying to lose them. As more titles are added in the future I may well find additional articles of interest and could end up having to take out another 2 day package every time I want to view just one article. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I presumed that the subscription packages were aimed more at the academic researcher than the family historian but from reading others’ blogs and tweets it’s clear that researchers who are heavy users of online newspapers find the limit of 1000 pages a month far too restricted. For a more detailed review by an academic historian who specialises in newspaper research I recommend the digital victorianist’s <a href="http://www.digitalvictorianist.com/2011/12/the-british-newspaper-archive-2/" target="_blank">Review: The British Newspaper Archive</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I hope you have as much success in locating your ancestors in The British Newspaper Archive as I did. It’s certainly worth trying out and you never know what you may find....</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-11347121349405420462011-11-27T13:13:00.001+00:002011-11-27T13:28:01.687+00:00More Records of the Edinburgh Poor<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A few months ago I wrote about the <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.com/2011/07/lists-of-edinburgh-poor.html" target="_blank">Lists of the Edinburgh Poor</a> held at Edinburgh City Archives, which cover the period 1869-1884. I’ve recently been researching an individual who was on the Edinburgh poor roll at a later date and once again found that, whilst it is true that the majority of Edinburgh poor relief records have been lost, it is possible to find some information about those in receipt of poor relief.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWB0bswQZYL1J19xzbSfglUqZbRzCfidXgnCoHc3f_Shu_wk1yUuQ7F31qi4MdpN0VQMERnefs2GyVJmKZ9jMyhmbVuWzkEqL1lAMm-GW3dg5zgSJb_2fq70pTKOK3cRhPlJn-Xi4CjQ/s1600/Edinburgh+City+Chambers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWB0bswQZYL1J19xzbSfglUqZbRzCfidXgnCoHc3f_Shu_wk1yUuQ7F31qi4MdpN0VQMERnefs2GyVJmKZ9jMyhmbVuWzkEqL1lAMm-GW3dg5zgSJb_2fq70pTKOK3cRhPlJn-Xi4CjQ/s320/Edinburgh+City+Chambers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Edinburgh City Archives is housed within the City Chambers</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The records I was examining were the minutes of Edinburgh Parish Council from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Edinburgh Parish Council existed from 1895-1930 and incorporated the former Edinburgh and St Cuthberts Combination Parochial Boards as well as parts of Liberton, Duddingston and Leith. Among the Council’s responsibilities were the Craiglockhart and Craigleith Poorhouses as well as other institutions within the Edinburgh area.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Despite having previously been told that the chances of finding any mention of a particular individual within the minutes was pretty slim, I found that they were full of names; and for some periods names are even indexed at the front of each printed volume of minutes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The information on children, especially those who were boarded out, is particularly detailed as these examples show:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Edinburgh City Archives ref. SL14/1/7 - </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Edinburgh Parish Council: Minutes of Council and Committees From 17th June 1901 to 21st Oct 1901</i>. Edinburgh: James Turner & Co., 1902.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pages 92-93</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Children’s Committee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Wednesday, 9th October 1901.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">786C</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Joan Davidson, Prestonkirk, taken off roll by Grandmother on 3rd </span>September, and working to Mr Smith, Factor, Whittinghame. Wages 8s. a week.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">611C</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">James Weir, Lanark, ran away on 20th August. No trace of him can </span>be got - supposed to be working. Police to be communicated with again, and if no word of the boy within a fortnight, the Clerk to advertise and offer a reward of 20s.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">886, 892C </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Edward Byrne, and David Brown, Gladsmuir. The Visiting Committee </span>recommend a Topcoat for each. Grant.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">877C</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mary Douglas, 12, with her Sister in London. Doctor reports her </span>a confirmed Epileptic, and should be in an institution. Clerk to enquire and report as to any institution suitable for the treatment of this girl.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">William, Henry, Roderick, and Winifred Young, in Craiglockhart </span>Poorhouse with Mother. Deserted by Father. Advertise for Father.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">2219R</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">James Sandilands, in Craiglockhart Poorhouse with Mother. Illegitimate. </span>Delay for a month.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Note: The numbers against each child’s name seem to be case numbers, although any records to which these numbers refer do not survive.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In addition to children, the names of ‘lunatics’, paupers suffering from some illness and whose cases were considered by the Medical Committee and those whose place of settlement was debated are frequently mentioned, often with at least some brief details.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Whilst not everyone who received poor relief will be mentioned by name in the minutes of Edinburgh Parish Council, in the absence of other records they are certainly worth a look and may well provide some explanation of how an ancestor fell on hard times.</span></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-2825703801792060862011-11-07T20:22:00.000+00:002011-11-07T20:22:28.547+00:00A Question of Religion<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Last week I made a research trip to <a href="http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/Navigation-els-LocaAndFamilyHistoryHomePage" target="_blank">Paisley Local Studies Library</a> and among the sources I looked at were poor relief records.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Poor relief records are a fantastic resource often revealing not only why our ancestors had to resort to asking for help from the poor law authorities but also providing details of their births and families.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_8EirI7X8WO_UU046wsZnjxHoJtRK-wLRmAUBN-8osm7ZJSf8Ar3j9JUNvvioT4HKrTzyKuMyAmblqVYZGak8yJONdleb4cOZ1HEtJBWZE6h00HTb2-RoFzr80pBR6qblY10klE5PA/s1600/Paisley+Museum+%2526+Library+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_8EirI7X8WO_UU046wsZnjxHoJtRK-wLRmAUBN-8osm7ZJSf8Ar3j9JUNvvioT4HKrTzyKuMyAmblqVYZGak8yJONdleb4cOZ1HEtJBWZE6h00HTb2-RoFzr80pBR6qblY10klE5PA/s320/Paisley+Museum+%2526+Library+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Paisley Museum & Library where the local studies collection is housed</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When browsing a volume of poor relief applications I was particularly struck by the answers given in response to the question of ‘Religious Persuasion’. These represented a wide range of religious denominations including Secessionists, Methodists, Baptists and Relief Church as well as reflecting Paisley’s large Irish population which included both Roman Catholics and Protestants (some described as Church of England or Episcopalian).</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It seems to have been relatively common for husbands and wives to belong to different churches and what was perhaps surprising was the irregularity with which many people appear to have attended any church. The following are a sample of answers found in volume B57/11/1 ‘</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #333233;">Paisley Parochial Board: Statements of Cases’ </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">which covers 1839-1842:</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Mrs Archibald Gibson, aged 66</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>West Relief Church formerly, but never attended nor members for 30 years</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Mrs Peter Docherty aged 31</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Roman Catholic: self a member and husb[an]d is not</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Walter Millar, aged 61</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>formerly in his younger days, he was a member of the Abbey Cl[ose] Independent</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Widow William Cumming, 77</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Church of Scotland: Once a Communicant but not so for some years</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>George Stewart, 40</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Church of Scotland: but never has Communicated</i></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></i></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Hellen Cavannah, 58</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">has a disposition towards the Roman Catholic faith; not a Member</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></i></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Widow Thomas Campbell, 56</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Protestant: Once attended but not so for many years</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></i></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Widow Malcolm Turner, 76</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">neither herself nor husband were members of any church</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is worth noting that in Scotland, often only the fairly well-to-do were actually communicants or full members of a church (as opposed to simply attending) and it is not uncommon to find that a couple married in a particular church and had all their children baptised there without ever appearing on the communion roll.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, given these answers, locating these people in any church records may well be a challenge and it is quite likely that many of them died prior to the start of statutory registration (1855).</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’ve often had the impression that my Scottish ancestors rarely darkened the door of any religious establishment. Given this evidence, I may well be right!</span></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-41721652571621650012011-10-26T19:28:00.001+01:002011-10-26T19:29:26.965+01:00On the verge of a new life...<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve just spent a busy but productive day at the <a href="http://www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/">ScotlandsPeople Centre</a> and whilst researching a client’s family from Argyll came across this interesting entry in the Old Parish Register for Kilchrenan and Dalavich: </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OPR 517: Parish of Kilchrenan and Dalavich, Argyll </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Register of Marriages in the United Parishes of Kilchrenan and Dalavich </i></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>1821 </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>June 5 <u>Peter Macffarlane</u> late at Airdchonnal & </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> <u>Elizabeth Campbell</u> at Kames. Were Married this day </i></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> at the Manse of Kilchrenan </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by </span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> Mr William Fraser Min[iste]r</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: italic;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> and were furnised </i>[sic]<i> with a certifi-</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> cate of their Marriage & Moral </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> Character as they with his Father </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> and family are preparing for Emigrating </i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> to Upper Canada. </i></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s one of those times when the clerk thought to note down at bit more than just the bare facts and it paints an evocative picture of a young couple on the verge of a new life. I think Elizabeth must have been brave to leave her own family behind and head off into the unknown, but perhaps she couldn’t bear the thought of Peter sailing off without her!</span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-32435756006644691062011-10-08T20:49:00.000+01:002011-10-08T20:49:07.123+01:00Getting Educated<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Genealogy education is a topic that’s been on my mind quite a lot lately. Firstly, I just heard that I’ve successfully completed the <a href="http://www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/">Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies</a> from the University of Strathclyde. Secondly, I’ve recently joined a <a href="http://progenstudy.org/">ProGen Study Group</a> and one of my first assignments was to draw up an education plan for the next few years. And finally, last month I attended an <a href="http://www.agra.org.uk/">AGRA</a> Associates Day in London where the main theme was Continuing Professional Development. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think it’s fair to say that education is a pretty hot topic in the genealogy world right now. I’ve read two articles on the subject in the last few weeks: 'A Qualified Success' by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/keatsbabe">Suzie Grogan</a> in the October 2011 issue of <a href="http://family-tree.co.uk/">Family Tree Magazine</a> (UK) and 'The Art of Teaching Genealogy' by <a href="http://www.lisaalzo.com/">Lisa A. Alzo</a> in the September 2011 issue of <a href="http://www.apgen.org/publications/quarterly/index.html">Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly</a>. <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers">Geneabloggers Radio</a> had a 'Back to School Special' devoted to genealogy education in August and Angela McGhie, administrator of the ProGen Study Groups, writes a blog, <a href="http://genealogyeducation.blogspot.com/">Adventures in Genealogy Education</a>, devoted to the subject. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s clear that there’s a great demand for education from genealogists, whether tracing their own families, researching professionally or aspiring to become professional. Not surprising perhaps as genealogists are typically people with a thirst for knowledge and, I suspect, generally optimists who believe that the answer to finding that elusive ancestor is out there somewhere, if only they knew where to look. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last year when I completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies I wrote a post about my experience of the course. You can read that post <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.com/2010/09/postgraduate-certificate-in.html">here</a> and much of what I said also holds true for the Diploma course. This year, whilst considering ideas for my continuing education, I thought I’d write a brief summary of available genealogy education options from a UK perspective. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Long-term Courses</b> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those seeking an in-depth programme of study lasting several years there are three main options in the UK. <a href="http://www.strath.ac.uk/genealogy/">The University of Strathclyde Genealogical Studies Programme</a>, <a href="http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/courses/correspondence.html">The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies</a> (IHGS) Correspondence Course in Genealogy and the <a href="http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cais/familyhistory.htm">University of Dundee Courses for Family and Local History</a> (leading to a Postgraduate Certificate or Masters Degree). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of these courses are available online for distance learning. I don’t have personal experience of them all, but one of the main differences seem to be that the Strathclyde course involves intense study with assignments submitted to meet regular deadlines, whilst the IHGS course can be completed at the student’s own pace and the Dundee course is modular with students having some choice over what modules to complete and how many modules to undertake at a particular time. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Short-term Online Courses </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those looking for a shorter course, Dundee University also runs two online distance learning courses entitled <a href="http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cais/beyondtheinternet.htm">Beyond the Internet</a> and modules from it’s main genealogy course can be taken individually (although a £95 registration fee applies). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main provider of short-term online courses in the UK is <a href="http://www.pharostutors.com/index.php">Pharos Tutors</a> who are currently offering about 40 individual courses on a variety of genealogical topics. <a href="http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/">The National Institute for Genealogical Studies</a> is based in Toronto, Canada but offers courses on English, Irish and Scottish research from basic to advanced levels. Some courses are non-credit but others are credited and can be used to gain a Certificate in English, Irish or Scottish Records. Celia Heritage of <a href="http://www.heritagefamilyhistory.co.uk/index.htm">Heritage Family History</a> has created a 4-module e-Course which can be purchased and downloaded from her <a href="http://www.heritagefamilyhistory.co.uk/courses.htm">website</a>. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Short-term Local Courses </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many genealogy courses available throughout the UK which can be attended in person. These are typically provided by university lifelong learning departments, adult education programmes, family history societies, libraries & record offices and private individuals and range from beginner’s workshops to advanced courses on particular record types. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Free & Low-cost Options </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The above courses, especially the long-term ones, involve a serious investment of time and money, which not everyone is in a position to make. However, one of the things which was stressed in both my ProGen reading and at the AGRA Associates Day was that genealogy education doesn’t have to involve an organised programme of study. I hadn’t previously viewed many of my activities related to genealogy as educational or fully appreciated how much I was learning all the time. Below are are few of the other ways us genealogists can educate ourselves. If you’re the type of person who regularly reads genealogy blogs then chances are you already participate in quite a few of them. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Webinars are a topic I’ve heard a lot about lately, although they’ve yet to make much of an appearance in the UK. <a href="http://www.sog.org.uk/index.shtml">The Society of Genealogists</a> held a webinar on Using Legacy Software a few months ago and hopefully there will be more to come. In the meantime, there are plenty of webinars available from the US which are relevant to genealogists worldwide. <a href="http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/webinars.asp">Legacy Family Tree</a> is a major provider of webinars and if you are not able to attend live then many recorded ones are available from their website (in some cases they are available free for a limited time and can be purchased after that). <a href="http://blog.geneawebinars.com/">GeneaWebinars</a> provides details of upcoming genealogy webinars and a calendar to keep track of them all. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/home.html">FamilySearch Learning Center</a> offers a growing collection of videos and recorded lectures, described as free courses. There are currently 66 in the UK category (some of which are actually lectures from The National Archives available elsewhere) and others, for example in Instructions and Methodology, which are not location specific. These range from the ‘5 Minute Genealogy’ series for beginners, to advanced topics lasting about an hour. A recent addition is <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/scotlands-old-parish-registers-how-to-access-use-and-interpret/316">Scotland’s Old Parish Registers: How to Access, Use and Interpret</a>. Nick Barratt, editor of <a href="http://www.your-familyhistory.com/">Your Family History</a> magazine, has an online video series on YouTube called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/familyhistoryshow">The Family History Show</a>. So far there have only been a few pilot episodes but hopefully more will follow. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Podcasts are a good way to keep up with the latest news in the genealogy world and to increase your knowledge. <a href="http://genealogyguys.com/">The Genealogy Guys Podcast</a> and <a href="http://genealogygems.tv/">Genealogy Gems Podcast</a> are both US-based but frequently cover UK news and sources. The BBC radio programmes <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/tyr">Tracing Your Roots</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/genealogy">Digging Up Your Roots</a> can both be downloaded as podcasts (but only for a short time after they are broadcast) and <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers">Geneabloggers Radio</a> can be listened to live online or downloaded as a podcast. <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/">The National Archives (UK) Podcasts</a> are recordings of lectures held at TNA and cover family, military and social history. There are currently over 70 lectures in the family history section covering topics from 'Sources for Anglican Clergymen' to 'The Pub and the People'. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Genealogy books and magazines are another good low-cost education option and you don’t necessarily have to buy them. A simple keyword search for ‘genealogy’ on my local library catalogue returns over 900 titles and whilst some of these are transcriptions and indexes (as well as duplicates) this still provides plenty of educational reading. Membership of most genealogy societies includes a subscription to the society’s journal and allows you to attend talks given by the society. Talks, lectures and workshops are also hosted by local history societies, libraries, archives and educational organisations and whilst these may not always be specific to genealogy they can help to broaden our genealogy education. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At present, ProGen is the focus for my genealogy studies but my wider education plan involves most of these free and low-cost options. What about you? What other forms of genealogy education do you participate in?</span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-20351038682864410752011-08-29T00:42:00.000+01:002011-08-29T00:42:33.135+01:00The Scottish Genealogy Society's Black Book<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although I'm a member of the Scottish Genealogy Society, I don't often look at their <a href="http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/">website</a>. Today was one of the rare occasions when I did and I discovered a resource there of which I was previously unaware and which I thought was worth sharing.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the great resources of the Scottish Genealogy Society's library is the society's collection of monumental inscriptions. This is claimed to be the largest collection in Scotland and includes many unpublished transcripts as well as publications produced by family history societies all over Scotland.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Society has now made details of all their holdings relating to Scottish deaths and burials available online through <a href="http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/Downloads/TheBlackBook.aspx">The Black Book</a>. These are a series of pdf documents which can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer and which show what burial, death and monumental records and indexes are held at the library for each parish in Scotland.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJpbsPqUn-oioy1rVR-Ycj0O68iGSCeRDrhR2gRTp2tklITLKHBIs3X0sm3LHDc7335oaTKGgArkpt6S5fEKsWQnJBUoTmRIVYUKXdUJ1rfKcsng3aso8IHRkJYoFExXIRV4nSAoeLw/s1600/Miller+Monument.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJpbsPqUn-oioy1rVR-Ycj0O68iGSCeRDrhR2gRTp2tklITLKHBIs3X0sm3LHDc7335oaTKGgArkpt6S5fEKsWQnJBUoTmRIVYUKXdUJ1rfKcsng3aso8IHRkJYoFExXIRV4nSAoeLw/s320/Miller+Monument.jpg" width="184" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A Monument to the Miller family in Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even if you are not able to visit the Society's library in person to view the records and indexes, this acts as a very handy list of the majority of surviving records of Scottish deaths and burials prior to 1855.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although not so comprehensive, it's also worth looking at the National Library of Scotland's <a href="http://www.nls.uk/family-history/gravestones/inscriptions/index.cfm">Index of Published Monumental Inscriptions</a>. This includes details of some nineteenth-century publications containing monumental inscriptions as well as inscriptions published in journals such as <i>Scottish Notes and Queries</i>. This index is only updated occasionally, however, so it is also recommended that you search the main library catalogue as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whilst on The Scottish Genealogy Society's website don't forget that you can also download an <a href="http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=oqiXq7zXXmQ%3d&tabid=150&mid=441">index</a> to <i>The Scottish Genealogist</i> journal covering 1953-2005 which includes plenty of articles on monumental inscriptions.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy searching!</span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">© All images and text copyright Kirsty F. Wilkinson</span></span>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-77258954371862858442011-08-03T19:39:00.002+01:002011-08-03T19:42:08.398+01:00Using LibraryThing for Genealogy<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a confession. I buy books and never read them. I just can’t resist a second-hand bargain of some obscure history title that I may never see again or a new genealogy reference book that promises to help me break through that impenetrable brickwall. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have the best of intentions, but too often I just read the introduction, flick through a couple of chapters, then stick the book on my groaning bookshelves for "when I have more time". I’ve now reached the point where not only do I need a new bookcase, but I’ve also several times found myself in a bookshop looking at some inviting title and wondering if I already have it. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj015SmyKqPvYbZ5vlW4SB5B3wYTQyK0pmQevaL7M0WeL3yRKGuU2ft7hTXb2idij6D7kiwJsdU7U2LtH2rZCCBysjemTIylmSOMI0kMQhVJNh-QgvrnfkTkTcGJUg-NiSzGRMOt218CQ/s1600/P1000216.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj015SmyKqPvYbZ5vlW4SB5B3wYTQyK0pmQevaL7M0WeL3yRKGuU2ft7hTXb2idij6D7kiwJsdU7U2LtH2rZCCBysjemTIylmSOMI0kMQhVJNh-QgvrnfkTkTcGJUg-NiSzGRMOt218CQ/s320/P1000216.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Currently awaiting shelving.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve recently seen a few of my Facebook friends discussing using <a href="http://www.librarything.com/">LibraryThing</a> as a way of cataloguing and sorting their book collection and decided to give it a try. I spent a few happy hours earlier this week going through my bookshelves and putting the majority of my history and genealogy titles online. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibraryThing">Wikipedia</a>, LibraryThing is a social cataloguing web application for storing and sharing book catalogues and various types of book metadata. For me, it’s a way of figuring out what books I actually have and, hopefully, the first step in becoming more organised and doing a bit more reading. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LibraryThing is free to join, although if you want to enter more than 200 books you will need to upgrade your membership. A lifetime membership starts at as little as $19.00, depending upon your generosity. So far I’m at 193 books so may well be upgrading soon. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can choose to make your account completely private and only need to enter personal details if you wish. There’s a short introductory guide on the website but I pretty much just leapt straight in and got started entering books and found it very intuitive. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I entered most of my books by ISBN number and then selected the matching edition from Amazon or one of the many available library catalogues, which include the National Library of Scotland. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It turns out I have more books than I realised, including a few I don’t remember buying (‘<i>The Scottish hosiery and knitwear industry, 1680-1980</i>’???). Despite it being rather an unexplored interest of mine, I apparently have 23 books on the history of the family (as opposed to family history), including four with sex in the title - well what Scottish genealogist could resist a book called ‘<i>Scottish church attitudes to sex, marriage and the family, 1850-1914</i>’! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me, the most useful feature is ‘collections’ which allows you to put each book you enter into one of the predefined categories or any other you choose to make up (I’ve yet to discover if there is a limit to the number of collections you can create or the number of collection you can place a particular book into). This means you can arrange your titles in a way that’s meaningful to you. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example, I’ve created an ‘Old Documents’ collection which includes my books on old handwriting, Latin and Scots dictionaries, glossaries of words useful for family and local historians, reference books such as ‘Dates and calendars for the genealogist’ and more general guides to particular records such as ‘Wills and Probate Records’. This means that when reading or transcribing an old document I now have a quick way of checking what books I have that may be of use. You could perhaps create a collection of books dealing with a particular country or region, or an area of research in which you specialise. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m not sure how involved I’ll get with the social aspects of LibraryThing, but for now have made my account public and joined the <a href="http://www.librarything.com/groups/genealogylt">Genealogy@LT</a> group (yes, of course there’s a genealogy group!). I also signed in with my Twitter account which meant I could immediately see some familiar faces who were already using LibraryThing, although I’m not sure how to find that information again. I have come across some people whose names I recognise from other social media sites through having books in common. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As all the books I’ve entered are genealogy or history related, the recommendations LibraryThing makes are fairly useful, although all the ones I’ve added to my ‘wishlist’ are books I’ve previously heard of but not got around to buying yet. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are interested, you can find my book list at <a href="http://www.librarything.com/catalog/KirstyF.Wilkinson">http://www.librarything.com/catalog/KirstyF.Wilkinson</a> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m currently looking at developing an educational plan (a <a href="http://progenstudy.org/">ProGen</a> assignment). It turns out that to improve my genealogical knowledge and skills I probably need look no further than my own bookshelf!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> © All images and text copyright Kirsty F. Wilkinson</span>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-84592642093731858932011-07-13T22:10:00.000+01:002011-07-13T22:10:38.868+01:00Wordless Wednesday - Happy Centenary Grandad<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have just been reminded by my Dad that today is 100 years since the birth of my paternal grandfather, Douglas Sykes Wilkinson (1911-1985).</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy Centenary Grandad!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUCgJzheUZHD1SZfeVjaTqNy3MInbjPcGZre1fFtAe7xPAqTWOpioO74inXNjSk_ML-xZs3vHr2i-aDH-nSmFdd8LtZbuqzGyat7ux7_r9WX2M92PJojMgIKXIbgIz4dvoVjwmOQ-aFA/s1600/Douglas%2526Kirsty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUCgJzheUZHD1SZfeVjaTqNy3MInbjPcGZre1fFtAe7xPAqTWOpioO74inXNjSk_ML-xZs3vHr2i-aDH-nSmFdd8LtZbuqzGyat7ux7_r9WX2M92PJojMgIKXIbgIz4dvoVjwmOQ-aFA/s320/Douglas%2526Kirsty.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Grandad & Me</span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-41117096994557647092011-07-12T18:37:00.000+01:002011-07-12T18:37:01.681+01:00Lists of the Edinburgh Poor<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I spent this afternoon at the <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cityarchives">Edinburgh City Archives</a> which is hidden away in the City Chambers, three floors below the level of the Royal Mile.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main reason for my visit was to examine some records I had identified through the <a href="http://www.scan.org.uk/">SCAN</a> catalogue, Edinburgh Parochial Board: Lists of Poor 1840-1884. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This record consists of two volumes and I looked at the second of these which covers 1869-1884 (SL8/7/2). This is a printed volume entitled ‘List of Poor in Receipt of Relief from the City Parish of Edinburgh’ and for each year the names of those receiving poor relief are divided up into the the following sections: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Out-Door Poor </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inmates in Poorhouse </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inmates in Lunatic Wards </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inmates in Morningside Asylum </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lunatics Boarded with Relatives </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lunatics Boarded Out </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Paupers Boarded in Institutions </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Invalids Boarded Out </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Children Boarded Out </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apprentices </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Edinburgh Poor in Country Parishes </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Country Parish Poor in Edinburgh Parish </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Children Receiving Education </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the cases of children boarded out and apprentices only a name and identifying number are listed, but in most other cases an address or name of institution is also given. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, by far the most detailed section is for the out-door poor where the following information is provided: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roll Number </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Weekly Allowance </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Name </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Age </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Residence </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Number of dependants (Male and Female) </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Religious Denomination </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether Member or Adherent </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Any Assistance provided by the Church </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remarks (generally how long each person has been a member of their church but also details of any illness or disability) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The vast majority of those who received outdoor poor relief were women. For example, in 1882 Alice C. Peacock was receiving 4s 0d a week. She was aged 31, living at 7 Stanley Place, and had one male and two female dependants. She was recorded as a member of St Mary’s Episcopal Church, which she had attended for 1 year nine months, but received no assistance from them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The men who received outdoor relief were mostly elderly although there are a few exceptions. In 1882 Archibald Sandilands, who lived at 3 Greenside Row, top flat right, was in receipt of 6s 0d a week. He was aged 39 and had three male and two female dependants. He was a member of the Greenside Established Church which he had attended for 8 years but again received no assistance from them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Archibald, his wife Elizabeth, and their six children were recorded living at 3 Greenside Row in the 1881 Census (RD:685/2 ED:3 Page:11). His older children may well have been considered old enough to work and therefore not dependants. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, I didn’t find the person I was looking for today, but these lists are well worth a look if you think your Edinburgh ancestors may have received poor relief. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Further details of the holdings of Edinburgh City Archives and a list of those who claimed poor relief from St Cuthbert’s Parochial Board in the period 1850-1852 can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/429/archives-access">http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/429/archives-access </a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: Edinburgh City Archives will be temporarily closed from 28 July until October 2011.</span></span></span></div></span></span>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-24914795718051649952011-07-02T10:13:00.000+01:002011-07-02T10:13:14.311+01:00‘Be the rebellis of this Kingdome killed & slaine’: A Glasgow Apprentice’s Testament<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m currently doing some research into the <a href="http://www.tradeshouse.org.uk/associated_trades/cordiners/Historical_Notes.asp">Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow</a> (a trade incorporation of leather workers) and spent yesterday looking at records of various Glasgow cordiners and their families, including a lot of testaments (the Scottish version of probate records). </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One record that I found particularly intriguing was the testament dative and inventory of John Bryssone (Bryson), son of the deceased Patrike Bryssone, cordiner, Burgess of Glasgow, which was confirmed at Glasgow Commissary Court on 8th July 1647. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">John had died in August 1645 and his sister, Margaret, was appointed as his executrix. However, the really interesting information about him comes under the heading of ‘Inventare’: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Glasgow Commissary Court: Register of Testaments 1646-1650 </div><div style="text-align: justify;">NAS ref. CC9/7/30, Page 124 </div><blockquote>Item the defunct being the tyme foirs[ai]d bund prenteis to W[illia]m Glen elder baxter burges of glasgow taine furt[h] as ane co[m]mone souldier being of the age of twe[n]tie yeiris or th[e]rby And be the rebellis of this Kingdome killed & slaine at the battell of kyllsyt[h]...<i> </i></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">The Battle of Kilsyth took place on 15th August 1645 and was a conflict between Scottish Royalists, under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, and the Covenanters, under William Baillie. Information on the battle can be found on the <a href="http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=66">UK Battlefields Resource Centre</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I initially read the testament I presumed that the ‘rebellis’ were the Covenanters and that John Bryssone had fought on the side of the Royalists. However, a little reading indicates that Glasgow generally supported the Covenanting movement and that by 1647, when the testament was confirmed, it was Montrose and his army who were viewed as the rebels (according to the <a href="http://www.rps.ac.uk/">Records of the Parliaments of Scotland</a>). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qvDUygeibemWJSitWY2sfgBOpFmvzyyAdgBVSt6K-qCLjAImgKrAaTXQpAOst3kDTsz6jM_sPs6MAZL5MnugyeEe0J84d309C1X8Fl75avp2LzRq0apR2PXudufipigz9VOiv6kL8Q/s1600/Inscription_on_the_cairn_commemorating_the_battle_of_Kilsyth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_920648.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qvDUygeibemWJSitWY2sfgBOpFmvzyyAdgBVSt6K-qCLjAImgKrAaTXQpAOst3kDTsz6jM_sPs6MAZL5MnugyeEe0J84d309C1X8Fl75avp2LzRq0apR2PXudufipigz9VOiv6kL8Q/s320/Inscription_on_the_cairn_commemorating_the_battle_of_Kilsyth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_920648.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Chris Wimbush</div><div style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inscription_on_the_cairn_commemorating_the_battle_of_Kilsyth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_920648.jpg">Wikipedia</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">John Bryssone (or Bryssoun) was probably the son of Patrick Bryssone and Isobel Glen baptised in Glasgow in 1619. From the OPRs it appears that Margaret was his only sibling. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">William Glen, elder, baxter, Burgess of Glasgow, to whom John was apprenticed, acted as cautioner for Margaret when the testament was confirmed, and may have been a relative of their mother, Isobel Glen. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was not able to locate a record of John’s apprenticeship, although <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/recordsoftradesh00glas">The Records of the Trades House of Glasgow A.D. 1605-1678</a> does record at least two other boys being apprenticed to William Glen, elder, baxter (in 1631 and 1649) both as “seivin yeirs prenteis and twa yeirs for meit and fie”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to a report in the <a href="http://www.cumbernauld-news.co.uk/news/local-headlines/memorial_to_battle_of_kilsyth_1_354647">Cumbernauld News</a>, historians believe that many of those killed in the battle were buried nearby. Much of the battlefield is now under Banton Loch, although a memorial cairn (shown above) was erected in 2003.</div></span>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-37590148361687788172011-06-26T17:39:00.000+01:002011-06-26T17:39:54.853+01:00Preserving Personal Papers: A Cautionary Tale (and a confession)<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had a great time at the <a href="http://www.safhs.org.uk/conference.asp">SAFHS conference</a> yesterday and attended some interesting lectures. These included a talk by Richard Hunter of <a href="http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/428/archives">Edinburgh City Archives</a> on “Edinburgh its Archives and Inhabitants” in which he emphasised that many records of the city’s schools and other organisations have been lost - in most cases simply thrown away. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, I’ve been clearing out some boxes in a cupboard and have discovered that some of my own papers have been lost and damaged - in this case due to poor storage. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m a bit of a hoarder and wasn’t too worried when it was discovered that one of the boxes was somewhat damp as I thought it just contained some old papers from uni that I would most likely throw away if I ever got around to sorting them out. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was, however, more than a little upset to discover at the bottom of an increasingly wet box a cardboard folder containing a set of certificates and other papers that I’ve been collecting together since childhood so wet and covered with mould that it some cases half of each document has been eaten away and no longer exists. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These papers include my GCSE certificates, a series of dance and music examinations going back to the 80s (some with handwritten reports by the examiners) and a group photo of my school year as well as less official ‘certificates’ such as one confirming that I took a trip in a hot air balloon in 1991. Not the most important documents in the world perhaps (it could have been a lot worse) but I know I’d be pretty excited to discover something similar concerning an ancestor. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course as a genealogist I know that not only should these have been more carefully stored (I honestly believed that this folder was kept in another cupboard!) but also that I should have scanned them and kept multiple backed-up copies. As a human being, I hadn’t got around to it yet. </div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I confess that I don’t really have a proper system when in comes to storing genealogical documents. I’ve always figured that all the important stuff is still with my mum and dad and that most of the records I have are modern copies of documents held in public archives that would be relatively straightforward (if costly) to replace. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, I’ve heard of <a href="http://ancestories1.blogspot.com/search/label/Scanfest">Scanfest</a> (apparently there’s one happening today!) but somehow I just never thought it was relevant to me and, probably like many genealogists, I’ve never given much thought to documenting my own life. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thanks to some advice from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/KirstyFWilkinson/posts/10150294468619066">Facebook</a> friends I’ve now put what survives of my documents in the freezer. I am hoping this will dry them out sufficiently to be able to separate the pages so that I can then scan and/or photograph what remains in order to salvage some of the information, if not the documents themselves. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the meantime I’m giving some serious thought to making sure I have scans of all my other personal and family papers and to (finally) implementing a proper system for backing up my data - honest!</div></span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-89928710750553861992011-03-06T17:17:00.000+00:002011-03-06T17:17:14.665+00:00Genealogy versus Family History<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve recently been watching episodes of the second US series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ (WDYTYA) and following reactions to it through <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> and on <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers">GeneaBloggers Radio</a>. I was particularly struck by the response to the episode featuring Kim Cattrall which seemed to be (from some quarters at least) that, although very interesting, it didn’t include much genealogy and that therefore WDYTYA was not the best place to feature such a story. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The episode, in which Kim discovered what happened to her maternal grandfather after he left his wife and young family, was originally shown as part of Series 6 of the UK WDYTYA and this perhaps explains why it sits a little uncomfortably with the rest of the US series. In the UK, WDYTYA has gradually evolved from the early series, which did tend to be a straightforward tracing of family lines generation by generation, to the most recent ones which often follow a more biographical format, featuring perhaps just one or two ancestors of the featured celebrity. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although I’m not without criticism of these episodes (which often seem to be chosen because of their ability to wring the maximum amount of emotion out of the participant), I do think that this shows one of the strengths of the programme, namely in demonstrating how wide-ranging the study of family history can be. WDYTYA shows that family history can be about recent generations, what your grandfather did in the war or why no one ever talked about great uncle so-and-so, as much as about tracing your surname as far back as possible or collecting as many names and dates as you can. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my professional research I’m often fascinated by the range of what clients want to find out about their ancestors and, conversely, what they are not interested in. For example, one former client was very keen to trace all the brothers and sisters of their grandparents, including property records, wills, newspaper reports and passenger lists. However, when I suggested it would be possible to trace the family another generation or two back they were not interested. For them, tracing their family history meant discovering more about the people they had grown up hearing stories about; beyond this they felt the connection was too distant to be worth pursuing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then there are those clients for whom the goal is to trace the family line as far back as possible and when a record suggests a possible avenue for research (e.g. a census return may indicate an ancestor spent time in an institution for which records survive) they are not interested in pursuing it, but are instead content with locating births, marriages and deaths. In this case, the attitude seems to be that once you go back a few generations you have so many ancestors that you can’t possibly find out everything about them all and that therefore it is best to stick to the basics. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course there are plenty of people whose interests fall somewhere between these two, and in the case of paid research (or indeed any research) the cost involved is a factor in determining how much research can be done into any one individual. However, these varying attitudes can perhaps be summed us as the difference between genealogy and family history. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The terms genealogy and family history are often used interchangeably (a genealogy society and a family history society are pretty much the same thing, for example) but can also mean slightly different things. A family tree chart showing the names of all your ancestors going back four generations with their respective dates of birth and death records your genealogy, but tells you little about your family history. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Where did your ancestors live? What jobs did they do? Were they wealthy or in receipt of poor relief? What were their lives like? These are all questions the family historian seeks to answer. Whereas genealogy can sometimes seem a narrow field of study (only being interested in someone if you are descended from them), by contrast the family historian seeks to understand the past through the lives of their ancestors and so the range of what constitutes ‘family history’ is almost endless. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These days the trend seems to be increasingly towards family history and away from simple genealogy. Perhaps because, as more records become indexed and available online, finding births, marriage and deaths has become a lot easier than previously, meaning researchers have the luxury of concentrating on everything that went on in between. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, was Kim Cattrall’s search for her grandfather a suitable subject for WDYTYA? Well I suppose that depends on whether you view WDYTYA as a programme about genealogy or one about family history. But, as a family historian, I would definitely say yes!</div></span>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5649373752017919445.post-37003103116227316352010-12-12T14:02:00.000+00:002010-12-12T14:02:10.321+00:00Living the Poor Life in Glasgow: Part Two<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Back in October I blogged about the <a href="http://professionaldescendant.blogspot.com/2010/10/living-poor-life-in-glasgow.html">Poor Law Archives in Glasgow</a> and the fact that not everyone was happy with the poor relief they were offered, especially if that involved going to the poorhouse. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In contrast, whilst searching through some online newspaper archives this week I came across a report of a man who, according to the authorities at least, was a little too keen to spend time in the Glasgow poorhouse: </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Scotsman </i>(Edinburgh, Scotland) 26th March 1902, p.8, col. 7. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A LIKING FOR THE POORHOUSE.- Robert M’Ateer, </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">an Irishman, was charged at Glasgow Sheriff Sum- </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">mary Court yesterday with contravening the Poor- </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">law Acts by becoming chargeable to the parish of </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Glasgow after the city authorities had, at this own </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">request, sent him to his parish of settlement in </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ireland. The evidence showed that accused, who </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was forty-three years of age, had been in the poor- </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">house fifteen times. Sheriff Fyfe said that accused </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">appeared to be one of those people who came over </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">from Ireland and practically lived in the poorhouse. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That sort of thing would not do; Glasgow was not </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">going to keep all the vagrants who cared to come <div>into it. Sentence of two month’s imprisonment was<br />
passed.</div></span></div></span></span><br />
<div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div>Kirsty F Wilkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05558508787388848119noreply@blogger.com4